Le Dat, dissident poet, dies after fall

Stephen Denney <sdenney@ocf.berkeley.edu>

date Apr 25, 2008 10:12 AM

subject [Vsg] Le Dat, dissident poet, dies after fall

Agence France Presse reports the death of Le Dat, "one of four leading intellectuals who were censored and detained in the 1950s for their dissident writings," at age 78, after he fell down some stairs at his family home. AFP says:

"..During North Vietnam's brief period of artistic openness, Le Dat and fellow writers Hoang Cam, Phung Quan and Tran Dan called for free expression and criticised policies including harsh communist land reforms. Hanoi, under the influence of Maoist China, closed the magazines in late 1956.

"The writers were kicked out of the party-run writers' union, banished to re-education camps and banned from publishing their work for decades. Still, the poetry and writings of these four Vietnamese literary figures survived and were widely circulated underground.

"Last year, half a century after suppressing their work, Vietnam's communist government officially rehabilitated the four, of whom only Le Dat and Hoang Cam were still alive, awarding them the National Prize..."

see:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23585081-23109,00.html

- Steve Denney